Anti-tourist protestors vow to flood holiday hotspots in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France this summer

At least 15 groups from holiday hotspots in Spain, Portugal, Italy and France will team up in Barcelona next month to plot more protests. The Neighbourhood Assembly for Tourist Degrowth said it wanted to “strengthen the network of the territories of southern Europe against tourists”.

Last month visitors to Spain's party paradise Ibiza were left disappointed after a popular viewing point was dramatically blocked off with boulders. The famous Es Vedra viewpoint, where thousands gather to watch the sun sink behind the mountainous island each evening, is now off-limits after frustrated landowners declared they'd had enough of being overrun by crowds.

Chaos also erupted in Tenerife last week, where furious activists reportedly torched and smashed a fleet of hire cars in a shocking act of protest. The escalating backlash against tourism comes after angry demonstrators targeted visitors last year, blaming them for soaring rents and a cost of living crisis that's driving locals out of their homes. Some campaigners have even threatened to take their protests to the next level by blocking airports.

A protest also erupted in October after hundreds of demonstrators stormed Tenerife's Troya beach, where sun-seeking holidaymakers were stunned to be disrupted by a placard-waving mob yelling slogans such as 'More tourists, more misery' and 'the Canary Islands are not for sale'. Protesters descended on the beach, one of the most popular in Las Americas (Tenerife), with many beating on drums and blowing whistles as they walked along the shoreline.

Astonishing footage of the incident showed holidaymakers being surrounded and penned in by Spanish locals while they were sunbathing in swim shorts and bikinis. Half a dozen activists also went on hunger strike outside a church in the northern Tenerife town of La Laguna last year.

Victor Martin, a spokesman for Canarias Se Agota which translates into English as 'Canary Islands on the Brink, said before it started: “The hunger strike is indefinite and will continue until the two macro hotel projects we're fighting against are stopped for ever and the regional agreement agrees in writing to sit down and talk to us about a tourist moratorium. A tragedy could occur and someone could die if the government doesn't listen.”